Running Away
by B.Jackson.Companion007
Summary: Rose Tyler has changed in the approximately-two years since she's been with the Doctor. After the Doctor leaves them, its up to his MetaCrisis to figure out what to do. A heart-to-heart with Jackie Tyler, a rented car, and an endless universe leads from shaky ground to the basis of what was meant to be.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer : All belongs to the BBC. (I just learned its more accurate to say "the BBC" rather than just "BBC", hooray for my American-ness...sorry guys in the UK...)

A/N : This started out a bit shorter than it actually ended as. I think...this is the longest thing I've ever written and posted! Yay for me!

Also, many many thanks to Lizzy Lovegood for being an amazing beta! I would have blundered through if not for her.

Reviews=Love so please R&amp;R!

—tu es invincible —

She just stood there, head held high and a fire in her eyes. Their hands were intertwined, but he felt no warmth. She radiated a kind of determination that came off as, "If I see that twat again I will slap him into his next three regenerations," and it wasn't something that the Doctor wanted to to tempt. After all, he didn't have any regenerations to fall back on. He only had this one life and whether she wanted to share it with him or not was sitting on a very narrow, picket fence.

In all honesty, he couldn't blame her for her feelings towards him. Well, the original him. He himself wanted to hurt the first person that hurt his Rose Tyler, and if it so happened to be the original version of the Doctor, then so be it. Right now though, he needed to sort out Rose.

Not that she needed any sorting out. She wasn't the same nineteen-year-old chav - no, estate girl - that had been stuck at a dead end job taking her nowhere. She wasn't the girl that was pity-dating her best friend because it was safer than staying with abusive rockstar-extraordinaire Jimmy Stone. She wasn't even the scared, lonely girl that she had been on Satellite Five that first time with her first Doctor.

No, she definitely wasn't her. Rose Tyler, oh Rose Tyler...she was so much more. She was the conqueror of worlds. She was the blazing Bad Wolf. She was amazingly strong, having a tenacity that survived the worst poisons and the most heartbreaking situations. His Rose Tyler had an identity all her own.

It was this identity that she had built up around herself, impregnable walls to protect herself from further hurt, which needed to be sorted out. At least to him. He was hurt and upset and confused himself, but to be so confused by one pink-and-yellow human was not an emotion he could handle. Since he, the old him, had left her on that damned beach two years ago, she had changed. He'd seen it in her when she looked at him, gun balanced expertly in work-roughened hands. He'd seen the pain etched in her face, only disappearing when she smiled at him. Rose Tyler had changed, and she was so different.

What scared the Doctor the most was that, if Rose Tyler had changed, how could he even begin to be what she needed? Here they were, standing on that damned beach, years separating them from each other. He was what she had needed two years ago, but two years had produced an entirely different Rose. She was a product of those two years. He was her new-new Doctor, but he wasn't even sure that he belonged to her anymore. Judging by her expression, there was no questioning that she didn't belong to him. He was the 'elephant in the room.'

"Do you mind if I just...get some alone time? You know, just...give me some space for a few moments please?"

For the first time, she speaks to him. Her voice is rough from holding back emotion, and she's wearing a look that he can only call the Oncoming Storm. The Doctor's familiar with it, his face has certainly worn that look enough times. It's a look that leaves no room for argument, only a plea hidden in a grim 'dealing-with-things' mask.

And he is in no position to argue. If he does, he will only be on the receiving end of a Tyler-Woman-Slap, of which he is not fond. Worse, the fragile string that connects them is one strand closer to snapping altogether. Instead, he nods, looking deep into her eyes and trying to convey understanding through the space of a moment. Releasing her hand from his, he stuffs his own into his pockets and walks towards the highway.

It's more of a rustic road than a highway, but it's sufficient to drive away from this. Well...hitchhike away from this. As much as he used to despise getting domestic, he could go 'domestic' and leave. That's what boyfriends that weren't good enough did in the movies, wasn't it? But there isn't a car in sight. He sighs, resigned, and decides to ask Jackie what the plans are.

Jackie would know what to do. Jackie always knows what to do. She is the tough single mother, raising her precious daughter up off meager funds in Estate Housing. She is the bearer of the famous Tyler-Woman-Slap. She let her daughter run away, more than once, but still loved her when she came back. And she saved them. Jackie Tyler would know what to do.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: DW, sadly, is not mine. Belongs to the BBC still.

A/N: Next bit! I hope you enjoy! Also, thanks for the reviews, follows, and faves! It makes my day!

Still owe many thanks to Lizzy Lovegood, she's amazing for being my beta and for being an awesome writer!

—tu es invincible —

"What are you thinking, Doctor?"

Jackie startles him out of his reverie. He was pondering whether he should actually ask her for advice, or just wait until she realized he was desperate and offered it herself. Luckily, the latter happened, and he couldn't have been more grateful to one Jackie Tyler at the moment.

"Well...to be honest, a lot of things. I...don't know what to do, Jackie. I mean, I always know what to do, with my Time Lord brain and all these things floating around in my head. But Rose? She just takes all those thoughts and ideas and pushes them to the side. It used to be that we could just pop off for chips and everything would work itself out. But...I can't do that for her now. I saw the way she looked at me. She doesn't see me. She sees him. Damn him for leaving us here, no choice in the matter. Damn him to hell and back."

He couldn't help himself, honestly: to say so much, to let his walls crumble so easily. Most of all, he didn't mean to seem...vulnerable...least of all to Jackie Tyler. But he did. Maybe it was the human bit of him. Or maybe it was because he was scared. Because he was at his lowest. Because he thought that he wasn't good enough for Rose and that without her, there wasn't any reason for him to stick around. And that terrified him.

Jackie studies him, with an odd mix of sympathy and...almost disgust. At least he chooses to interpret it as disgust. Disgust that this 'replacement' is standing on a beach, wind blowing through his immaculate hair, a sad puppy-dog face mooning after her daughter. Disgust that he, the other him, couldn't have done better.

But it's not disgust that Jackie feels, oh no. It's compassion. It's empathy. Because she knows what its like. She knows what it feels like to be left somewhere unfamiliar, somewhere she hadn't prepared for, with someone she barely knew. Someone who was so similar, yet so different, from the one she loved.

"Let me tell you something, Doctor."

His head snaps up, brown eyes piercing into her grey-blue ones. '_What could Jackie Tyler possibly be able to teach me_,' he thinks bitterly. But the human side of him wonders if '_maybe, just maybe, she knows._'

"Let me tell you about me. I didn't have anything when you took my Rose away. She just up and left, not a backwards glance. Kissed Mickey goodbye and didn't come back for a damn year. A whole goddamn year, Doctor. That was his fault. He hurt me so bad. But I carried on with my ho-hum life. Jackie Tyler, living on the Estate, nowhere to go, nothing to do. I missed my little girl. I broke my back for damn near twenty years, try'na bring her up right. We didn't have much money. She didn't have much of a future. But I loved her. That was enough for the two of us.

"And then he came along and took her. It was alright, I suppose, after I got used to it. They'd pop in some days, drop off her wash, heaven knows why he didn't do it on that spaceship of his, and visit for a day or two. Never more'n a week. And she was happy. Happier than she ever was with me.

"And then he had to change his face. Broke her heart, it did. She loved him, that big-eared goofy version of him. Sure, he was a bit of a grump and had this holier-than-thou attitude, but he made her so happy. And they went off gallivanting across time and space.

"Then we ended up here. He brought me back to when I was Rose's age and I met Pete. Oh, he was chivalrous and charismatic and had this infallible get-her-done attitude. I was in heaven. Except this Pete was rich, and brusque, and hadn't planned on having a wife to deal with. We fought like teenagers. We made up. I had to learn to love him, this different him over again. He wasn't Pete that I had lost. He was separated from me by a dimension and almost twenty years. Funny, what success does to a man.

"I know for a fact that this is what it's like with Rose. You're the same person inside, minus the extra bits, and what you feel is the same. You're like me, shoved into a different dimension with the most defining parts of your life taken away. No friends to go to the pub with on Wednesdays. No shopping mate. Not even the same hair salon. Forced into this new life, that you haven't got one idea on how to live. She is your Pete. She is who you fell in love with, separated by the experiences she's gone through.

"But I'll tell you one thing. If I know Rose, the one thing that will get through to her? Let her talk. She'll hate you for making you talk to her, but she'll love you for it when she gets all these feeling off her chest. Just between the two of us? When Rose was a teenager, the only thing that helped our fights was when I forced her to talk to me. After forty-five minutes of silence, she'd open right up and pour her heart out to me. Even after all this trauma, she's still that same girl at heart. Let her be that girl with you."

The Doctor is taken aback by this spiel. Jackie Tyler of all people, offering him some peace of mind. Given, he'll probably get slapped by Rose when he tries to talk, and then slapped by Jackie when she finds out he's upset Rose, but...its almost worth a try. To him, Rose is this scary, thousand-piece puzzle, and every time he starts to get all the border pieces together, something comes along and shakes them up, making him question if it was even right in the first place. But he would do anything to love Rose Tyler. Because, if he believed in one thing, he believed in her.

"Still stumped are you, Doctor? Just going to stand there and gape after her? That isn't going to solve your problems, love. Just once and a while, run towards something instead of away from it," Jackie quips and the Doctor snaps out of his musings, somewhat ashamedly.

"Well, what the hell should I do? I can't drive anywhere!"

He's frustrated now, on the verge of tears. Damn these human hormones. Damn this beach. Damn this whole situation.

"Hold on, love," Jackie soothes. "I've got Pete coming out with a rental car. Well, he'll drive it out and then he can just call a zeppelin to pick the two of us up. Tony's with his sitter, he'll be fine. You take that car. Drive somewhere, I don't care where. I'll have Pete leave a burner phone in the car, you can call if you need anything or something happens. Torchwood leaves their emergency kits in everything, too, so you've got the 'emergency' bit covered."

He puffs his cheeks out, exhaling air as a low groan escapes him. This isn't exactly the ideal situation, but its better than nothing. He can feel a pressure at the base of his throat, and swallows thickly to hold it down. Glancing at Jackie, he gives a quick nod and ducks his head in shame and embarrassment. He doesn't trust himself to speak, so he hopes that Jackie can read his emotions as well as he seems to be displaying them.

Stuffing his hands deeper in his pockets, he turns towards the sound of a vehicle coming over a ridge. The SUV rolls slowly to a stop meters away from them. The heavily-outfitted vehicle is rugged, built to handle almost any terrain and gleaming with a look that advertises bullet- and plasma-ray-proof glass. Perfect for an agent of Torchwood. Giving it a glance, he makes eye contact with Pete as he opens the door and moves to hug Jackie.

Still the neat and orderly man that the Doctor remembers, Pete seems to have softened into family life. Instead of the hard work- and worry-lines that once chiseled his face, laugh lines now radiate from eyes that hold warmth rather than calculation. These same eyes give the Doctor a once-over and a nod, both men acknowledging silently that each of them has gained something that they had a chance of never seeing again. And that each of them has their own little battle to fight.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Don't make any money from them, just write their situation for the enjoyment of the crazy fans.

A/N: More! Yay! Thanks to the follows and reviews!

As always, thanks to Ms. Lizzy Lovegood for being awesome.

Please R&amp;R! Enjoy!

—tu es invincible—

Pete and Jackie stand talking quietly together, heads tilted towards each other and Pete's arm around his wife. The Doctor is standing close enough to hear Jackie whisper "_Rose needs to talk,_" and Pete's incredulous reply of "_And he's the best for this situation?!_" The Doctor can't help but agree with Pete. After all, what does he know about human hormones and...domestics? He's a 900-and-something Time Lord, on the run from love and anything else that strives to pin him down. It takes him a second to realize that he's not the Time Lord anymore, but merely a brain full of wonder stuffed inside this far-from-wonderful human shell.

Rose is heading towards the parked car, seeing that Pete is there with her mother. A slight nod at him, and a brief look of confusion in Jackie's direction are all that show of Rose Tyler. She's building up her walls again, and they aren't going to be pulled down easily. She avoids his eyes, knowing that she will see pain and frustration in them. But most of all, she will see him. The him that she loved the first time. And the second time. At this moment, she can almost imagine that she's the scared young shop-girl wandering around the basement of Henrik's, surrounded by things she can't fight, before he grabbed her hand and pulled her along, the word "Run!" hissed in her ear.

Because now she is surrounded by things she can't fight, too. She is being pulled at from every direction by warring tidal waves of emotion. Happiness and hope, mingled with desperation and bitterness, all wrapped up in fear. She is one raw nerve, rubbed until the ends are frayed and sensitive to anything. The last few hours have been a whirlwind, and she worries that, if she even starts to think about...everything again, she'll puke. Or pass out. Or both, one after the other. It's too much for her.

This beach isn't helping, either. This goddamned beach, that seems to hold the pen that writes her destiny. Since working at Torchwood, she can now monitor the actions of at least five others around her at once, pick up changes in body language in all five, and discern smells from over twenty-five different sources. During her training, she was grateful for so many things to occupy her mind that weren't him. Now, she curses her abilities. They pummel her, the salty air assaulting her nostrils, the MetaDoctor slouching in her peripheral vision, and watching her mother whisper about her to Pete. It's too much.

Deciding that she had better be sitting on something other than a soggy beach if she faints, Rose makes her way to the car. She pulls the passenger-seat door open with a little more force than she means to and settles into the seat. Pete will probably be the one driving and she bets that sitting in front with him will be the safest option for avoiding conversation. If she sat in back, either her mother (most likely) or the MetaDoctor (less likely, but still viable) would want to sit with her, hold her hand, touch her, talk to her. And, as desperate as she is, she can't sort out the difference between wanting to be left alone or wanting someone to sit with her and to hold her hand, to treat her like she's breakable and to just talk to. She feels so breakable, behind the façade of this impregnable wall. The question is, which leap will hurt the most: letting the MetaDoctor go or accepting him?

Sighing quietly to herself, she's lost in her thoughts as she stares at the place where the TARDIS dematerialized for the last time. She knows that its final, that she won't get to hear that horrible, lovely sound ever again, to feel the hope that washes over her when she hears it. It is done. She's so lost in her thoughts that she doesn't notice when the driver's seat door gently opens until the MetaDoctor slides into the seat next to her. He doesn't move, doesn't even pull the door shut. Just sits there, waiting for something. Waiting for her?

A temper rises under her sadness. He's waiting for her? Is he giving her a decision? For once, she gets a choice? Instead of being pulled along for the ride and damn the consequences, she gets to choose? Well what a fine kettle of fish this is. Crossing her arms, she huffs and stares doggedly out the window. Jackie has walked around to her side, one eyebrow raised as if to question "Well, what do you think you're doing?" Rose's face grows darker, glaring at her mother, until she realizes that Jackie isn't directing that look at her. Jackie is asking if the MetaDoctor is going to follow through with his plan. If she hadn't spent three months in the Torchwood psychoanalysis department, she wouldn't have noticed the message between her mum and that man behind her. But she had, and she did.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Just sitting there isn't going to get you anywhere. If you're planning on running away with me, then let's go."

"That, Rose, is the second time today someone has said that to me. And I intend to do something about all this running."

He pulls the door shut and shoves the key harshly into the ignition. A glance at her tells him that she doesn't plan on looking back at him any time soon. Her face is scrunched up in a scowl, feet jammed into the floor, and knuckles white holding onto the seat belt. Thinking to himself that this had better be worth it, he steers the clumsy vehicle towards the road and starts to drive.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Still not rich from owning Dr. Who. Cause I don't.

A/N: Another chapter. I think...this is close to the end...

Thanks so much for following this! It means a lot to me!

Thank you Lizzy again for being my beta!

Also, woot there's a cameo for Sarah Jane! Because, who doesn't love her?

—tu es invincible—

They drive for about an hour before Rose speaks. The only thing she says is that she needs to use the bathroom, so the Doctor pulls off at the nearest petrol station and picks up a bunch of bananas, granola, some yogurt and spoons, and four bottles of water as he waits for Rose. She takes a lot longer than he would expect, so he waits outside the public restroom door, purchases in hand. When she finally reappears, her eyes are watery and her nose is rubbed red. It looks as though she's been crying, and her stormy look from earlier has been washed away with, presumably, a flood of tears. An older woman that looks like an alternate version of Sarah Jane, has her arm around Rose, and is helping her to the front door. The Doctor follows them, knowing better than to intrude on Rose when she's like this, but glad that she has found a friendly (and somewhat familiar) face to confide in.

Instead of heading straight out to the waiting vehicle, Rose walks up to the front of the store and out of his sight. He decides that it would be best for him to wait for her than for her to presume that he's been watching her. He knows that she definitely doesn't want him to see what she's like behind the mask she wears. Hell, he's the reason she feels as though she has to wear it in the first place. Walking out to the vehicle, he starts it and lets it idle as he waits. Momentarily, Rose returns, a bulky bag in each hand. Opening the backseat door, she stows the bags before returning to sit in front with him. Apart from a sigh, she makes no noise and they drive off.

"You hungry for anything?" she asks, after cruising for another quarter of an hour. He doesn't really know where he's going, nor does he care. Honestly, he is waiting for her to demand that he turn around and take her back to her mum. She hasn't yet, so he takes that as a good sign.

"Mmm, I could use a banana or two. Not super hungry but I'm getting tired, and I shouldn't drive on a tired, empty stomach."

"Good, I got a bunch. Funny, someone picked them all over, looks like they took about ten of the best, one from each bunch. Nutter."

Cringing inwardly, the Doctor realizes that was him. He's the nutter. His human side turns into emotional panic, thinking that she thinks he's crazy. Maybe it was the genocide. Maybe it's the MetaCrisis. Maybe, she thought that this slim version of him was a nutter all along and she just never let on. Realizing that he's not concentrating on the road and just barely missed sideswiping a passing car, he takes a deep breath.

"Hey, pull over here, yeah?" Rose suggests, noticing his tense jaw and strangled grip on the steering wheel. "There's a nice field, we could picnic there. Its gotten pretty nice out, I mean that haze that was on the beach isn't here, its actually pretty nice. See, the car thermometer says its about 18 degrees out. That's pretty nice, yeah?"

Seeing that they've made some progress as she's actively talking to him now, he decides to take the reprieve. It's not like he really needs it, he thinks, until he does a systems-check. This human form tires so much quicker than he used to; it's better to do what she says than to endanger them both.

Slowing to a stop, he parks the car on a stretch of sandy dirt on the side of the road. Trying to get his bearings, he realizes that he has no idea where he is. They have driven down a country road that took them out into a field waving with unkempt grass. The sun is shining down on them faintly, as though unsure whether it is welcome in England or not. Stretching, he thinks how lucky he got. This, now this isn't so bad. And, he's not running. Well...he's running towards something now, instead of away from it.

Rose is busy getting bags out of the back seat. There isn't much, just a bunch of bananas, a loaf of bread some peanut butter and jelly, and some bottles of some sort of juice. Sadly, the jelly isn't banana, but grape, which is decent. Ambling over to help her, the Doctor gets his bags, leaving the bananas. Between the two of them, there is enough for a feast, he thinks.

Apart from the bananas there isn't anything left in the vehicle to carry, so he takes his haul over to a relatively tame area of grass. Rose has the same idea, and they accidentally bump into each other. Impulsively, he reaches out his hand to wrap around her, to steady her. Catching her around the waist he pulls her towards him, breathing in her smell. For just a split second, he can imagine that she's molded into him, but the moment passes and she stiffens and pulls away from him. Sighing softly, he lets go of her and lets her, setting down his bags at the same time. She walks back to the vehicle after a moment of hesitation, and he lays down in the grass, losing sight of her. Arms folded behind his head, he reflects on the moment, wishing more than anything that he could hold her again. That she would let him hold her again.

A shadow falls across him, and he opens his eyes to see Rose hovering over him, a blanket with the Torchwood logo draped over one arm and a strange look on her face. He isn't sure what her expression is meant to convey, but he can guess that it isn't friendly. There is a darkness hidden in her eyes, one reminiscent of Bad Wolf, and one that he's not sure he wants directed at him. She notices that he noticed and turns away from him, spreading the blanket out over the grass and opening a box of plastic utensils with a loud clatter.

Cursing, she pulls a Torchwood-issued field-knife out of a hidden pocket and stabs the top of the container. Not really paying attention, she breaks the tines off from a few of the forks when she rips the top off from the offending cardboard. She wasn't really thinking about PB&amp;J's, but more about the look that she gave him. Why did she look at him like that? He wasn't her Doctor. He was some throwaway version, one that the real Doctor could afford to give her.

That look: how did he read it? Was it scary to him? Was his now-human brain overanalyzing it? Did he think that she wanted him gone now? Or...did he see the passion in her eyes? She felt like the blazing Bad Wolf again, need rushing through every vein of her body. Did he see Bad Wolf in her at that moment, too?


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Still not able to pay for school without student loans, sadly. DW isn't mine, sadly.

A/N: So, we're at the end! I hope you all enjoyed! Leave me a review if you liked it! Leave me a review if you want a continuation of this sorta-one-shot!

Thanks (as always) to Liz because she's awesome. Liz, if you're reading, *hugs*.

I really hope you guys that followed this all the way liked it. Please let me know if I'm a good writer/need improvement/should write something other than angst-y stuff...

Ta!

xx

—tu es invincible —

After the sandwiches are made, the knife she used to spread the peanut butter could very well have been used to cut the tension in the air. Even though they were in an open field, miles from anywhere, everything was trapped in this bubble with them. The difficult part was figuring out what should be done about it.

"Rose, can I just tell you how I feel? I mean, I know you probably don't want to talk much. Or at all really, thats fine too. But I think that we both need to get some things up in the air."

He speaks first, breaking the silence first. He can't bear to see her hurting, least of all when he is the cause of it. The Time Lord brain of his is working overtime, balancing the outcomes of saying certain things against others and how they would all affect the chain of events. The human part of him tells the Time Lord bits to shut the hell up and just jump in.

"I'm scared, Rose. Truly, that's it. I'm scared that this isn't going to work out. You're all I've got and right now, I can't even figure out whether I want to run to you or away from you. You have every right to feel these things. But honestly, Rose? I have a right to feel these things too. You and I will always be connected by the fate that we created together. It wasn't just when I grabbed your hand and told you to run. It wasn't just when I took you everywhere in the universe I possibly could, hoping to impress you enough that you'd choose to stay with me. It wasn't even when the stars started going out and we found each other again. It was us, together. Cause you aren't just Rose Tyler. You're my plus-one. And you and me, we created each other.

"I know this must sound really sappy, but I don't even know where to begin. Rose Tyler, I love you? Those are the words you wanted to hear and you deserve to hear them. But I'm not just saying them because you want me to say them, Rose. They're how I really feel. I am him, Rose. I'm him, fresh from the Time War, but this time I have you and that counteracts the pain of it all. You are why I'm here."

Rose pulls her knees up to her chin, wrapping her arms around them. She sets her half-eaten banana down and stares at him. She's crying, but not tears of sadness. Tears of remorse and empathy stream down her face instead. She can feel him hurting, because every part of him is a part of her. She knows what he's saying is true. She can't help but know it.

"Oh, Rose, don't cry. You're so amazing. Please please don't cry, I can't stand it. You, Rose, are the one thing that I want so badly to run to. The only reason I'm not right now is because I don't know if you want me to."

"Doctor, I'm not crying for me. I did that, in the bathroom at that petrol station. I don't need to cry for me anymore, I'm sure I've got Mum crying for me, and the other you crying for me, and you're worrying yourself sick about me. No, Doctor, I'm crying for you. For everything that you're feeling while I just worry about myself. God, I've been so selfish, sitting in that car with you, hardly saying a word, and you've been feeling like this the whole time? Why the hell would you do this for me? 'Cause I know you weren't doing it for yourself. No, you did this for me.

"I'm just some shop-girl, Doctor. I grew up too fast and not enough. I had this life I was so goddamn used to, then you show up and turn it upside-down. I haven't been the same since. There was so much out there! Dammit, there was so much. And, after all the choices you had in your life, the one choice that changed you? Me. How the hell could a silly shop-girl change you so much? I asked myself that every day traveling with you. I couldn't figure it out."

Rose has stopped crying now, but her voice is still strained. She's released her death grip on her own wrists, and has scooted herself across the blanket to be closer to him. They're so close, she can breathe in his so-missed smell, and he can almost touch her now.

"I spent so much time waiting for you, Doctor. Then, I stopped waiting and started running towards any sign of you I could get. I chased hints and false trails, and I changed myself. I stopped feeling things, Doctor. I stopped caring if I got hurt on missions, I stopped caring if I endangered myself every damn day. 'Cause that meant that I was one step closer to finding you again. Hell, I ran for so long that I forgot what it was like to just live a life. And then, this happened. Yeah, I'm stuck back here, and he's off gallivanting across the universe, saving lives and probably falling in love again.

"And what does he do for me? Leaves you here, probably without consulting you first, and just takes off. Doesn't say what he came here to say, after he left me the first time. No, he just takes off. Typical scared man."

She's so close to him now, hands gripping his lapels, sitting on his lap. His arms are wrapped around her waist, and this time she softens into him. Her face is so close to his, he can almost taste her lips. Even after two years apart, he can still read her like a book. Now that she's gotten things off her chest, so now she can finally relax, finally give in to what she's thinking.

"You know what I'm thinking, Doctor? To hell with him. To hell with this shitty situation. 'Cause, you know what? I love you. You made me realize that sometimes, feeling things is OK. That I have a life worth feeling things for again. I can run, sure. But at least I'm running with you."

With that last sentence, she closes the gap between them, her lips sliding softly over his, her body molding to fit into his embrace. This kiss isn't what it was on that beach, no, a reflexive reaction to words she had waited to hear for so long. This is a kiss between best friends who are lovers and lovers who are also best friends. This is the kind of kiss that leaves no doubt what the other is feeling, and leaves no room for argument.

"Doctor," she says, pulling back from the kiss, "we're not gonna do this here, OK? I just realized how bad I wanna kiss you and...other things, but I ain't doing it here, in this grass, on an itchy Torchwood emergency blanket."


End file.
